6 Jun 2025

Reductions hitting one of the country's largest hospices

From Nine To Noon, 9:08 am on 6 June 2025
Young woman in hospice care, holding hands in hospital.

Photo: 123RF

One of the country's largest hospice organisations is planning to reduce services next month, if nothing changes with regard to its funding. 

Tōtara Hospice, which services the communities of South and South-East Auckland, wrote to the Health Minister Simeon Brown this week to outline the urgency. 

It comes after years of warnings hospice funding is unsustainable, and this year's Martin Jenkins report which found that for the first time the hospice sector In New Zealand won't be able to raise enough money to break even. 

Hospices are funded by a mix of government funding and community fundraising. 

Tina McCafferty is the chief executive of Tōtara Hospice, which provides specialist adult palliative care to South and South-East Auckland.